Institute for Justice

Liberty & Law

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Carrying cash is not a crime, yet too often the government treats it like one. Consider the story of IJ client Phil Parhamovich, who lived a months-long nightmare trying to get his lawfully earned life savings of $91,800 back after law enforcement seized it during a routine traffic stop that resulted in no charges or…

2018 is off to a promising start for families in the Sunshine State. In December, Florida’s 1st District Court of Appeal upheld the state’s two largest school choice programs in the face of a sprawling legal attack by a group called Citizens for Strong Schools. The ruling comes after nearly a decade of litigation about…

Nashville, Tennessee, is the center of country music. Yet, incredibly the city bans musicians from making music in their own homes. Nashville has outlawed home-based businesses, preventing local musicians, hair stylists and other budding entrepreneurs from building their own American Dream. Nashville residents like IJ clients Lij Shaw and Pat Raynor face steep fines if…

Home-based business owners in many cities face needless and arbitrary regulatory hurdles—like those in Nashville—that make their lives more difficult, force them underground or shut them down completely. In December, IJ’s strategic research team released Finding the American Dream at Home: How Home-Based Businesses Benefit Entrepreneurs and Their Communities, which outlines the many benefits of…

As regular readers of Liberty & Law may recall, when we celebrated IJ’s 25th Anniversary in September 2016, we launched a major new campaign to secure IJ’s future. Thanks to the generosity and commitment of supporters like you, IJ hit not just one but two major milestones in this ambitious campaign in record time. We…

This past December, for the 16th consecutive year, IJ earned Charity Navigator’s four-star rating for our commitment to accountability and transparency and for demonstrating strong financial health. This is Charity Navigator’s highest possible rating. In once again awarding IJ the four-star designation, Charity Navigator wrote: Less than 1% of the charities we evaluate have received…

After IJ crumbled Wisconsin’s cookie ban this summer, we set our sights on the only state left that completely bans the sale of home-baked goods: New Jersey. The state’s home bakers have tried for nearly 10 years to get the law changed in the Legislature, and now they are taking their fight to the courts.…

Despite increasing recognition of Americans’ right to sell foods they make at home, hard data about the cottage food industry have been hard to come by—until now. In December, IJ’s strategic research team published a first-of-its-kind study of cottage food producers and their businesses. Flour Power: How Cottage Food Entrepreneurs Are Using Their Home Kitchens…

Economic liberty is coming to Charm City! In early December, the Baltimore City Circuit Court found the city’s ban on mobile vendors operating within 300 feet of any brick-and-mortar business selling primarily the same product too vague for the city to enforce. The court’s decision means that 2018 could be a year to celebrate for…

Christmas came early for the homeowners of the Pleasant Ridge neighborhood of Charlestown, Indiana. On December 4, the judge in IJ’s major property rights lawsuit issued a preliminary injunction against the city and ordered its officials to stop fining Pleasant Ridge residents as part of its effort to destroy the 70-year-old neighborhood and replace it…

Bob Smith opened the Pacific Coast Horseshoeing School in 1991 to teach new generations the centuries-old trade of making horseshoes and safely applying them to horses. Bob has trained more than 2,000 students—many of them with little to no formal schooling—to become farriers. His students simply want to learn a trade that pays well so…